Monday, July 11th, 2011

We got up nice and early because we wanted to make the most of our day. The girls had decided to rent costumes and the rental place (and all of the houses, etc.) opened at 10:00. We went to the Williamsburg Hotel for breakfast and boy were we glad we did! Super nice dining room and excellent service and a fancy schmancy buffet. Mmmm yummy. After breakfast Mark went to enquire about bike rentals while the girls and I got the costumes. Too cute. It was going to be a hot day, we could tell because we were already melting a bit. Along with the costumes the girls also got a “letter” from their aunt who was visiting relatives for the day and asked them to run a few errands for her while she was out. The first task was to go to the garden and enquire if they could help out, so we did that. The girls got to hoe a planting row and then plant the whole thing. The guide there was very patient with them and never broke character.

Next we toured a silversmith’s house where the guide there taught them how to do their “courtesy”, and then we went outside to the parade square where the girls played stickball. This was interesting for me because I always pictured it as baseball with a stick instead of a bat but really it’s cages at the end of a stick that you use to toss and catch a ball. After that we toured the Governor’s Mansion, where the most interesting thing I thought was thekitchen with the samples of the food they would have eaten. The sweet stuff, like fruit pies, came out at the same time as the main course, and then right before you were leaving the table you could have a spoon of jelly or a little biscuit. You never put jelly on bread. We started working our way down the town where we stopped at the little shops and a church. Then Mark called and he was back from his ride and it was time to meet him for lunch. We walked up to Merchant’s Square again and stopped at some of the shops there. I got some paper money, so the kids are set for any American History presentations they may have to do in the future. We ate a little diner where they had shakes and hamburgers, and then headed back into the historic town towards the brick making pit. This was the one thing Genevieve really wanted to do and thankfully they were letting people into to the mudpit. The girls had a blast, and Charlotte predictably fell over into the mud (so long nice white dress). We got their feet cleaned off, and then we headed to the government building while Mark headed to the air conditioned hotel. Did I mention it was really really hot?

We toured the government building and heard all about their take on revolutionary history which was a bit different than the one I was used to given the southern slant to it all, and then headed to the post office for ourlast task of the day. There we were given another task to go to the print shop, which was already closed. No matter, we were done with touring and the heat. We returned the costumes (the lady didn’t even blink at the mud) and went to meet Mark at the pool. What a nice pool! Very warm and nicely sited. We enjoyed that for as long as we could until we had to return to our little house and shower and get ready for dinner.

We arrived at the Kings Arms Tavern and had our traditional meal, eaten in the traditional fashion with knives and a broadcloth draped over us. I was surprised to find that peanut soup actually tastes pretty good! After dinner we retired to our house, too full to drink the bottle of wine Mark had gotten from the Williamsburg winery on his bike ride.

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